Simon Oliver

Simon Andrew Oliver (born 2 October 1971) is a British Anglican priest and theologian. Formerly Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology at the University of Nottingham, he is now the Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham. Oliver is also on staff with the Centre of Theology and Philosophy.

Early life and education Oliver was born on 2 October 1971. He studied philosophy, politics and economics at Mansfield College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1993; as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree in 1998. In 1995, he matriculated into Westcott House, Cambridge, an Anglican theological college in the Liberal Catholic tradition, to train for Holy Orders. and his doctoral thesis was titled The God of Motion: Theological Physics from Plato to Newton with a Particular Emphasis on the Work of St. Thomas Aquinas. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 2003. In November 2010, it was announced that he had been additionally appointed Canon Theologian of Southwell Minster; he was installed during a service at the minster on 13 February 2011. He became head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Nottingham in 2013. and was installed during Evensong on 20 September 2015. He gave the 2017 Stanton Lectures at the University of Cambridge; the series was titled "Creation's Ends: Teleology, Ethics and the Natural".

Views Oliver is a notable member of the theological sensibility known as radical orthodoxy. He organised the 2013 Centre for Theology and Philosophy conference: The Soul, held at St Anne's College, Oxford.

Personal life Oliver is married and has two sons.

Selected works